“The Simpsons” may have saved Yeardley Smith’s life. As the show reaches a remarkable 800 episodes — with more seasons and a new movie still to come — Smith recently revealed to Variety that her role on the animated staple gave her the ability to survive a nearly devastating accident 10 years ago.
Smith, who voices the jazz-loving, vegetarian and intellectual 8-year-old Lisa Simpson, fell down a flight of stairs in 2016 and broke her neck.
“I separated my C5 and C6 [spinal level] like a cigar cutter, and my spinal cord was threaded up through and almost snapped. I almost died,” she says. “Because of this job, I had good health insurance. But mostly, I had time. It took me over a year of full-time dedication to my recovery to get back to a place where you’d never know I broke my neck if I didn’t tell you.”
At that point, Smith had already been on “The Simpsons” for 600 episodes, and enjoyed a financial cushion that comes with being on such a long-running smash. That put her in the fortunate place to take the time to heal without worry.
“I recognize what a luxury that is, how extraordinarily fortunate I am to have been able to do that,” she says. “My life was disrupted by the injury, but not monetarily. That’s such an extreme example of the many gifts this job has given me — apart from the joy playing a character that I absolutely adore, that I aspire to be more like every day. She’s like the best version of all of us.”
Among other things, “The Simpsons” also allowed Smith to launch her own production company, which makes the long-running true crime podcast “Small Town Dicks.”
Meanwhile, Nancy Cartwright, the voice of rebellious 10-year-old Bart Simpson, says the show gave her the freedom to raise a family, write books, perform in a few one-woman shows and launch a nonprofit.
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“Until it really comes to an end, it’s so much a part of the fabric of my life,” Cartwright says. “I don’t feel like I take it for granted. I really love this show. It’s just kind of everything, personally, that I ever dreamed of doing. But it’s so much more than that. There are so many perks to being a part of such an incredible legendary show.”
Yes, there were several cast renegotiations that got a bit contentious, but as Smith notes, “I feel like it’s just business. I don’t take it personally.”
These days, “The Simpsons” headlines focus much more on the ever-evolving storylines — and misguided Internet memes. In recent years, hot takes (Marge is dead! Homer is no longer strangling Bart! Duffman is fired!) have consumed the Internet, inspiring a mix of amusement and chagrin from executive producer Matt Selman.
“We did a throwaway joke about Duffman not being Duffman anymore, and everyone was like, ‘“The Simpsons” retires beloved character,’ and I don’t think we did,” Selman says. “When it’s funny, Homer should still strangle Bart.” And no, Marge Simpson is not dead.
According to Selman, there’s no way “The Simpsons” can maintain an absolute canon 800 episodes in. Instead, he calls the show’s continuity “elastic.” Just because an episode may end one way, that doesn’t mean Homer and company can’t reset and go an entirely different direction the following week.
After all, when the show started, Homer and Marge were Baby Boomers. Now, because they’re still in their late 30s, that would make them Millennials. And “The Simpsons” is forever finding ways to comment on current society and contemporary pop culture. This season, that has meant a parody of “Severance,” a skewering of tech billionaires and a brush with K-pop.
“We’re all so lucky to have this job,” Selman says. “But if you’re repeating yourself, you’ve wasted the creative opportunity of a lifetime. There is a baked-in sameness to every ‘Simpsons’ episode, because the characters are the same characters. But there is also a new phase of the show’s existence.”
Hailing from 20th TV Animation, “The Simpsons” has seen its storytelling revitalized in recent seasons, including under longtime executive producer Al Jean and now under Selman, who recently took over as sole showrunner. Under Selman, “The Simpsons” has been experimenting with different storytelling styles, exploring the backstory of more characters and addressing issues like mental health.
On Feb. 15, Fox will air the 800th and 801st episodes, which couldn’t be more different. In Episode 800, “Irrational Treasure,” Marge takes Santa’s Little Helper to Philadelphia to enter him in a dog show. Homer stows away on the trip, and soon they’re embroiled in a “National Treasure”-like conspiracy.
“It’s one of our fun travel shows where we use the character of a city and the specifics of the city to tell a story,” Selman says. Guest stars include Philly natives like Quinta Brunson, Kevin Bacon, Boyz II Men and Questlove. There’s even a parody of “The Pitt” with Noah Wyle. (Yes, he knows, that’s actually Pittsburgh — but same state!)
Episode 801, “Homer? A Cracker Bro?,” is a thoughtful exploration of Milhouse’s dad, Kirk van Houten, as we discover what happens when a bipolar person goes off their meds. R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe guest stars.
“It’s still ‘The Simpsons,’ but mental illness is real. How can we do a story about it that’s empathetic, but also funny?” Selman says.
See — two very different stories, yet both very “The Simpsons” under Selman.
“I’m astonished at the ingenuity of Matt Selman,” creator Matt Groening says. “He brings a real fresh eye to the show. Part of him is driven by the same impulses the rest of us have, which is to try to be funny and emotionally engaging. But he also says he doesn’t want to be the one to run the show into the ground, so he’s running scared a little bit.”
Smith credits Selman’s structure giving the show’s writers a sense of ownership and agency with their stories. “They’ve gone so many places we wouldn’t have ordinarily gone,” she says.
Meanwhile, the staying power has solidified in recent years as the series’ entire run became available to stream in one place on Disney+.
“One of the great things for me is we’ve done so many episodes that I can watch earlier episodes and not remember a single thing about them,” Groening says. “Every time we do a new episode, it seems another episode goes out of my brain.”
“The Simpsons” also continues to find other ways to reinvent itself in pop culture, including a recent month-long event on Fortnite and 2024’s NFL simulcast. And now, a second “The Simpsons” movie is finally in the works, two decades after the first one.
“The first movie nearly killed us, because we tried to do the movie without increasing the size of the staff,” Groening says. “I think the reason why we agreed to go ahead with the movie is we finally have recovered from the first movie after 20 years, and we’ve hired a few more people.”
A long-running gag at “The Simpsons” anniversary parties is the tagline, “Almost halfway there!” That seemed funny at the show’s 150th episode party, the 200th, the 400th and even the 600th. No one thought the show would go that far. But now that they’ve hit 800 episodes, it’s very conceivable that the show could hit Episode 1,000. (Fox has renewed “The Simpsons” through Season 40).
“I think that would be an honorable thing to shoot for,” Groening says. “I would do it for 200 more — or more. Once, in 1995, a reporter asked me, ‘How long can the Simpsons go on?’ And I said, ‘We’re probably closer to the end than the beginning.’ Which I thought was very elegantly vague. But the headlines were that I was saying ‘The Simpsons’ was canceled. I have learned to say, ‘No end in sight!’”
Adds Selman: “Episode 1,000 would be 10 years from now. But I would love it if we did. I think we can find a way.”
“The Simpsons” 800th episode airs Sunday, Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. ET on Fox; next day streams on Hulu.
(Variety was front and center at “The Simpsons” 800th episode celebration, check out the highlights below!)
From Variety US